K3b has a great feature that lets you rename mp3 files when you make a data CD. This is really useful if, say, you want to make an mp3 CD to play in a car stereo that ignores directory structure, and might normally do things like play all the songs that start with "01" first. From the documentation:

Let K3b rename all the mp3/ogg files you add to your project to a common format like "artist - title.mp3"

OK, a "common format like 'artist - title.mp3'". Does this mean other common formats, like, say, "artist - track number - title.mp3" might be supported, too? Because the feature isn't all that well documented, and I can't figure out the formatting strings required ("artist - title.mp3" requires "%a - %t.mp3"). I tried "%T", "%n", "%d", "%y", "%Y" (I thought this would almost certainly be year). Every format I come up with other than "%a" and "%t" is just interpreted literally.

Are artist and title the only things that are supported? I'd really like to be able to listen to whole albums in my car in order.

I've taken a look at the source code - it appears to rely on "What's This?" functionality to display the documentation. This can be triggered from the question mark in the window decoration.

I've posted the documentation below in any case.

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Pattern special strings:
The following strings will be replaced with their respective meaning in every track name.
Hint: %A differs from %a only on soundtracks or compilations.

%a or %{a} or %{artist} - artist of the track
%t or %{t} or %{title} - title of the track
%n or %{n} or %{number} - track number
%y or %{y} or %{year} - year of the CD
%c or %{c} or %{comment} - extended track information
%g or %{g} or %{genre} - genre of the CD
%A or %{A} or %{albumartist} - album artist
%T or %{T} or %{albumtitle} - album title
%C or %{C} or %{albumcomment} - extended CD information
%{d} or %{date} - current date
%{e} or %{ext} - file extension (if left out, it is added automatically)

Thanks for the "what's this" tip. It also says:

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This specifies how the files should be renamed. Currently only the special strings %a (Artist), %n (Track number), and %t (Title) are supported.


Not sure how I missed %n, I was sure I'd checked that. I can confirm that the version I have running (2.0.2-9) does indeed support this feature (the long versions, i.e., %{artist} don't work, nor do the other formatting strings).

Thanks again!